The Victor's Spoils
by Tsar Bear
Summary: As Hakuno Kishinami prepares to be erased after winning the Holy Grail War, she finds herself in a different world.
1. Chapter 1

My journey finally reached a conclusion. The brutal manslaughter known as the Holy Grail War came to an end with me remaining a triumphant victor. Yet, after surviving numerous battles with a trustworthy Servant as my shield and sword, it would be impossible to resume my path.

I always was a copy of a person that exists somewhere in the real world. An NPC who won against all odds. Still, even if I won, the truth remain unchanged: this body of mine is only a cluster of "invalid data" and nothing more. If I was a real human, I'd have realized my wish and awakened from my slumber.

But I wasn't a real human, which means I would be erased. The "me" right now would cease to exist. The memories I made, the emotions I experienced, the ties I created would turn into nothing. It sounded so frightening, but the knowledge that the "me" out there was still there made me feel better.

I only wished to see one face again. The face of the one who stood by my side through this ordeal. A person I knew as well as myself, or perhaps even better. The one bound to me by the power of the Command Seal, my Servant. Inside the Moon Cell, the passage time could remain eternal as seconds stretch into hours and days, so I had plenty of time to grow nostalgic.

"Look what the cat dragged in!"

This boisterous voice was something I couldn't possibly forget. It belonged to my first opponent. _Temeroso el Draque._ Francis Drake himself, or should I say _herself_ , appears before me. A voluptuous woman dressed like a pirate. There was no way for me to ever forget someone like that.

"Congratulations are in order, I suppose."

Despite the fact that we were enemies before, she acted as if we were drinking buddies. Her smile didn't feel dishonest in the slightest: she was honestly glad to see me one more time. That I couldn't quite grasp. Her last moments, I remembered, were that of a graceful loser, but to think she would seek me out after all that happened.

"What's with the long face, girlie? You've won! Celebrate! Be merry! When I was alive, I always made sure to throw a grand party by the end of a battle."

Her boisterous laughter resounded through my ears. It felt like a pure satisfaction given more. Drake laughed like a person that enjoyed every moment of her life. Her arms settled on my shoulders and she smiled wider.

"I am a woman that prides herself at living every moment of my life as if it was the last. In your case, though, this last moment is right now. So, why won't you savor it while you still can? Here, smile. Laugh. I want to hear what the Holy Grail War's victor sounds like!"

And so, I laughed. Remembering all that happened, all the happy moments and the sad ones as well, how it all started and what it resulted in. This was the moment of my triumph, right? So I laughed like a kid, matched only by this energetic she-pirate next to me.

"Isn't that much better?"

Drake's smile was vibrant, even as her body started to dissolve again. Just like the last time, she started to slowly disappear into numerous particles of pure light. Before her radiant countenance vanished completely, she told me something else.

"I saw you mopping around and couldn't let that slide. Here, inside the Moon Cell, all Servants still exist. Rest assured, I'm not the only who wants to bid you farewell, girlie."

Finally, not even a single trace of her was left. A fleeting image of the Servant known as Francis Drake left me all alone… or so I thought at the moment.

"Does this hag have to be so damn dramatic? Just give me a break."

I abruptly turned around and saw another visitor from the past. A man clad in clothes as green as forest leaves stood there with a brazen grin on his face. The history remembered him as one of the many people that operated under the moniker of Robin Hood, but I knew him as a Servant of the Archer Class.

"Yo, enemy Master. Missed me?"

He was my enemy, too. And like the one that came before him, he came to cheer me one last time. Then, why did he look so sad?

"You fought hard, didn't you? You earned a happy end, but it's not like you got one, right? Bottom line: you didn't get _your_ happy end. This is where everything ends for you. Despite all the struggle and hardships…"

His smile was that of a person that knew the true meaning of the word "sadness." Not the kind that makes you resent the choices you made in the past, but of someone that accepted them and decided to move on. The bittersweet feeling, to say at least.

"… People like us don't get to have one of those, after all. All we can hope for is some satisfaction and a dry laugh in the end."

He was the man that followed his ideals and used any means to follow them. Following that path, he earned only the hatred and wrath of the same people he swore to protect. Yet, he never stopped. The choices he made were his own, and the only he thing he came to regret was that he never had a chance to fight nobly.

"Doesn't this make you sad? You and your Servant allowed me to leave that resentment behind, and for this, I am grateful. But what about you? Shouldn't you mourn the fact that you'll die soon? Cry? There's no shame in doing this right now. Nobody will judge you for that, you know."

I felt tears appears, but before they fell, I squashed them altogether and shook my head. It didn't matter if what happened to me was unfair. But I would never pity myself. It didn't felt right to me. Maybe, this was irrational, but I didn't want to spoil such a magnificent moment.

"You really are quite something, enemy Master."

He shrugged lazily and waved his hand at me as his body started to disappear.

"Nice work out there."

With those words, the man that had no name other than "Robin Hood" vanished as well.

As I kept wondering, I found something peculiar laying on the ground. It was a book, or more precisely, a children's book, if the colorful pictures were any indication. It reminded me of another servant. Caster. _Nursery Rhyme._

I idly flipped the pages and, although there were no words, I understood the gist of the story. It was basically a tale about a girl that got lost inside a forest. As she tried to find the right path, she encountered all kinds of wild animals that helped her on the way. The last page had a picture of the girl happily waving at the friends she made from inside her home.

"Sometimes, we have to part ways. The only thing we can hope for is that we will get to meet them again."

Those words were inscribed on the back of the book. A simple message, easy and comprehensible enough that even a child could understand it. Thus… why was I crying so hard? Even though I promised myself I won't, the tears refused to stop.

When I finally regained my composure, my chest felt light. Perhaps, this was what I needed all along. Not a shoulder to cry on, but a moment of stillness to collect my thoughts. What the author wanted to share with their readers was clear.

Even if my path and that of my companions had to separate, there was always a possibility we would again. It was an impossible dream, but dreams never had to be achievable. The more we struggled to reach it, the more beautiful such a fleeting dream became.

In the end, although she no more had a physical shape to interact with me, Caster still helped me a lot. I put the book back on the ground and saw it evaporate in a cloud of pure light.

I didn't notice it before, but my body was slowly thinning out as well. At this point, it was only a matter of minutes of before the system deleted me completely. I could only sit on the floor as my legs didn't have the power to support the rest of my body.

I felt so tired and sleepy. This was the end for me.

"Hey…"

I looked up and found an old man looking down on me. His hair were painted gray by the old age, but the pair of crimson eyes in which I was reflected belonged to someone far younger. At the very least, the energy behind me wasn't that of an old man.

"… Do you feel scared?"

It was a simply question, but somehow, it shook me to the core. Was I scared? Of course I was. It was natural for all living things to fear death. The complete cessation of existence was something that went against everything life stood for, and whether we accepted it or not, death awaited every single one of us.

I was deathly scared of dying. I could accept as such.

"Do you want to live?"

I… did. I wanted to live. All this time I tried to make peace with the fact that I would stop existing, but this didn't mean I had no desire to leave. The "me" right now wasn't the same as the "me" outside. The difference between us, however small it was, still existed, which meant we already were separate existences. The only "me" was "me." And I would die here…

"Yes."

I summoned last remnants of my strength to answer this old man's question.

"Hmm. I suppose I am responsible for this system. In a roundabout way. So this also means I'm responsible for your current circumstances."

The old man scratched his beard and looked over my body.

"It's not much," he told me. "But it's better than nothing. For now, close your eyes."

I did as he ordered and felt something warm touch my chest. In an instant, the world was swallowed by an array of colors I never knew existed in this world. Perhaps, they didn't. Perhaps, what I was at that moment was something completely unique to that particular reality. The old man's parting words repeated themselves in my ears.

"Good luck, child. Do not waste this second chance."

"… This is the last thing I remember before I woke up inside that forest."

I put the teacup down on the table, which takes an effort since my limbs became much shorter than I remembered them to be, and take a good look at the person I am talking to. He's a middle-aged man with white hair that obviously likes the green color, if his peculiar choice of attire – a suit in different shades of green – is anything to judge by. The interior design of his study is pleasing, though.

The man himself simply takes a sip from his cup and smiles at me. I take a peek at the nameplate on his table. "Principal Ozpin," it says. Principal of what exactly, I wonder. After I regained my consciousness, I was surrounded by men with weapons that refused to answer any of my questions. Is this some kind of an academy, then?

So many questions and no definitive answers. It's like the Holy Grail War all over again. Only this time, I don't have a single person to stand by my side and explain all the details. Only the strange man in green that started asking me questions all of a sudden.

"Well, isn't that quite a story, young lady?"

I quickly make a decision that I don't like the look of this smile. It feels far too ominous to me.


	2. Chapter 2

"Those would be your private quarters for the duration of your stay here."

After I told the man in a green suit my entire story, he ordered someone to show me the way to my room. My escort this time was a pretty woman with blonde hair and a pair of eyeglasses. Her attitude was that of a strict teacher, which only supported my theory that this place was a school of some kind, but there was a certain warmness in her eyes as she looked at me. To me, I must have looked like a confused and lost child.

"Thank you, miss…"

"You may call me Glynda," the woman showed me a slight smile and gently brushed my hair. For a moment, she looked much softer and kinder than before. This visage, however, vanished as fast as it appeared, and she started showing me around the place.

"We didn't have clothes that match your size, so we had to use what we had at the moment with a few adjustments. Please, put those on and I'll try to make them as comfortable as possible," Glynda said as offered me a tied bundle and politely turned the other way.

I took a bundle of clothes, a white shirt and a plaid skirt, obviously too big for my current body, that looked like a school uniform. I put those on instead of the Tsukimihara uniform I was wearing when they found me in the forest. The brown ensemble was now covered in dirt and thorn in a few odd places. As for example, nearly half of my skirt somehow disappeared, probably deleted by the time I was transported into… whatever this place was.

"Glynda, I am done."

The woman turned to me and instantly froze. As I noted, the size didn't quite fit me: the sleeves were too long, going way past my arms, and the skirt had too much free space, forcing me to hold it myself as to not let it fall off me. It was hard, being a child again…

Hmm, didn't I mention it? When I woke up in this world, my body became that of a child about Alice's age or so. Well, technically, I was never a kid in the first place, so this was a rather novel experience, too. Not that I ever wanted to feel like a child. Still, better that than nothing, I guess.

"C-Cute…"

"Hmm?"

I thought I heard Glynda say something, but when I looked at her, she was a picture of calmness and tranquility as she pulled a sewing kit out of her pocket.

"Here, let's see what we can do to make those fit you better."

* * *

"Thank you, Glynda."

Gosh, this child was too cute. I spent far too many hours teaching that unruly bunch of ruffians people call "students," so meeting such an obedient and well-behaved – not to mention adorable – girl was a miracle. When the headmaster summoned me in the middle of the night, I feared the worst, but fortunately, my prayers were answered.

"Now that I think about it, what is your name?"

I asked the girl, which looked at me with those big, innocent eyes that made my heartbeat race. For some reason, she reminded me of a small animal like a squirrel of some kind.

"Hakuno Kishinami. Call me Hakuno, please!"

 _How adorable!_ I thought to myself, but didn't show any of that on my face: I still had a reputation to uphold. Students, future huntsmen especially, acted much like animals and a lot like animals, they obeyed only those capable of instilling fear into them. As opposed to the student body's general impression of me, I had a soft side to me.

… A side this peculiar child assaulted with a ferocity of a cornered Grimm.

"T-Then, Hakuno, where did you come from?"

It was far too suspicious: a child her age appearing out of thin air like that. Obviously, she couldn't have gotten here by herself, and our cutting-edge security didn't find any abnormalities either: no traces of anyone's Aura left, so the possibility of someone using an advanced Semblance was nil as well. So many questions left unanswered.

"I… I don't really remember. Sorry."

I finished with the adjustments and put my hand on the distressed girl's head, starting to gently stroke her brown hair. It must have been quite a burden for a child this young. To find herself all alone and not remembering where she lived. Hopefully, there was a reasonable explanation and we would find her parents soon. I could only imagine how worried they were.

"That's fine. Don't force yourself. For now, you may want to take a nap."

"Yeah," the girl let out a yawn, her eyes half-closed from drowsiness. "Thanks again, Glynda."

Not even bothering with the clothes that now looked a little better on her, Hakuno plopped on the bed and instantly fell asleep. It appeared the exhaustion had finally settled in. Before leaving the room, I made sure to cover her with a blanket and silently take a picture with my scroll for the private use.

On my way out, I bumped into an unlucky student who was out after the curfew. I didn't deny the fact that my punishment could have been stricter, but I did experience some difficulties with finding my inner disciplinarian and only gave him some moderate tongue-lashing instead of a detention.

Honestly, I was rather fortunate he didn't notice a smile I had on my face a moment ago.

 **Author's Note:** This chapter is basically a filler, so there is no action involved. I will mix "feel-good" chapter like this one with the rest. As for the reviews, well, the idea sat inside my head for some time already, so any similarities are coincidental. Besides, this story's premise is far from original as it is. As for other characters from "Fate," I have certain plans for them. Saying more would be a spoiler, though.


End file.
